Polish President Lech Kaczynski has decided that he will not attend an EU summit in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, on Thursday to avoid a conflict with the government, the Presidential Chancellery said on its website on Tuesday, according to Xinhua.
While presenting a government position on the summit to the president, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that the Eastern Partnership project was a government initiative, the chancellery reported.
Wishing to avoid a conflict with the government, Kaczynski decided to propose that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk represent Poland at the session of the European Council in Prague, said the statement, quoted by Polish news agency PAP.
The decision taken by the president does not change his opinion that the Eastern Partnership can be a significant supplement of his eastern policy whose strategic goal is Poland's energy security, the chancellery said.
According to experts, the Polish constitution gives the prime minister priority in steering the country's foreign policy.
The EU Prague summit is planned to inaugurate the Eastern Partnership program, a joint initiative of the Polish and Swedish governments, designed to consolidate cooperation between the EU and its eastern neighbors -- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
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